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Limmex Emergency Watch Wins First Prize in M2M Challenge

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March 22, 2013

By Rory Lidstone, TMCnet Contributing Writer

Limmex announced today that its Swiss emergency watch won first place in the M2M Challenge, a global competition that aims to highlight the best innovations in M2M communication each year. Awards are available in a number of categories — including energy, security, health care, mobility (auto and transport) and consumer electronics — with one overall winner recognized for its outstanding innovation.

Limmex's emergency watch was the overall winner this year for its use of GSM/GPRS technology. The device can be used to call for help in an emergency, needing only the press of a button to connect directly with emergency contacts who can then offer or send assistance. Calls placed with the Limmex watch are routed through the company's intelligent cloud-based backend, which goes through the user's entire list of contacts until one is reached. If none of the contacts are available, the call is put through to a 24-hour emergency center.

The Limmex watch's settings and firmware can be updated over the air, meaning adding further functionality over time is easily possible.

According to Limmex CEO Pascal Koenig, the real difficulty in manufacturing such a device was miniaturizing the antenna, power supply and acoustic components, while still achieving style and performance. For the antenna and acoustic components, the company could turn to mobile phones for an example, but the power supply was a different story.

“We needed a solution that would keep working for months,” said Koenig in a statement. “Ease of use is essential, and we couldn’t have a watch that needed charging every couple of days.”

He added that the creation of standardized platforms is the best way to move the market forward, singling out Ericsson's Device Connection Platform as an example, since Ericsson (News - Alert) has excellent market access across the world. Indeed, the Limmex watch relies in part on the Device Connection Platform as the company worked with Swisscom in its creation, a network operator that typically uses Ericsson's platform. Deutsche Telekom (News - Alert) also played a role in the watch's creation.